S02.E09: Off the Cuff

[secnarf]

Quote

When Ben leaps into a bounty hunter escorting the world's most slippery criminal, a deadly pursuit forces them to go into hiding. Ben quickly realizes this leap is more than meets the eye. Addison faces a difficult decision.

Original air date: Jan 30, 2024

[AnimeMania]

David Clayton Rogers as Kevin Zatt
Alicia Lagano as Elena Carr
Josh Dean as Josh Nally
Connor Esterson as Jeffrey Nally
Gee Alexander as Cowboy Hat

[meet trouble]

Was it just me, or did the rest of you get suspicious of Elena after the first time plans went south on bringing in Kevin?

And why would Kevin keep pouring diamonds out of the bear after Ben and Hannah found him in the basement? Did the director think we didn't see them the first time?

[iMonrey]

I have no idea where they are going with Ben and Hannah, or Ben and Addison, or Addison and Tom. Looks like Hannah's husband is about to die so that frees her up for Ben going forward, but the show is still being all angsty about Ben and Addison even as she accepts Tom's proposal. One thing is for sure, the show is spending WAY too much time on this nonsense. Its chief flaw is still that the leap stories just seem like metaphors in service of personal shit between Ben and Addison. 

I get the impression maybe the show runners got the message that viewers weren't too keen on Ben and Addison and decided giving them each new love interests would solve the problem, but it's only compounded it instead.

[Starchild]

Only because they won't let. it. go.

[pezgirl7]

What bothered me about this is that Hannah’s son is 8. She was last with Ben 9 years ago. I think she made a comment about how she couldn’t wait forever for him, but really she only waited only a few months before getting married to someone else and getting pregnant. I was wondering if maybe her son is actually Ben’s son (or rather the son of the man he leapt into). I don’t know why she would keep that info from him though. 

[KaveDweller]

11 minutes ago, pezgirl7 said:

What bothered me about this is that Hannah’s son is 8. She was last with Ben 9 years ago. I think she made a comment about how she couldn’t wait forever for him, but really she only waited only a few months before getting married to someone else and getting pregnant. I was wondering if maybe her son is actually Ben’s son (or rather the son of the man he leapt into). I don’t know why she would keep that info from him though. 

I thought they said her son was 7. I remembered because I was assuming the kid was Ben's and thought the numbers didn't add up. But Hannah could have fudged how long it has been.

And if she was pregnant and single in the 50s, you can't blame her for getting married.

[pezgirl7]

40 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

I thought they said her son was 7. I remembered because I was assuming the kid was Ben's and thought the numbers didn't add up. But Hannah could have fudged how long it has been.

And if she was pregnant and single in the 50s, you can't blame her for getting married.

I just read a review that said he’s 7, so I think you’re right. Even so, she still waited less time before moving on than Addison did! But I still prefer her as a love interest over Addison. 

Also, she got pregnant in the 60’s. Not as scandalous as the 50’s, but if she had aspirations of becoming a professor, I could see feeling pressured to get married. 

[Trini]

On 2/5/2024 at 4:39 PM, meet trouble said:

Was it just me, or did the rest of you get suspicious of Elena after the first time plans went south on bringing in Kevin?

Yes! Because how would the bad guys know exactly which bus they were on?

I thought Ben and Hannah made a great team; but they need to stop doing stuff in front of people that would be unexplainable!

[lh25]

I loved the comments about the BB gun and shooting an eye out.  It would have been funny if they could have gotten Peter Billingsley to play Josh.

[QuantumMechanic]

Looks like the writers were having trouble with the script deadline approaching and watched Midnight Run and Home Alone.

[North of Eden]

Ugh, this was not the episode to come back to after hiatus. Very little on the coding to bring Ben home and saddling it with a very annoying  leapee that I would have been happy to see get rubbed out by the mob.

Hannah gets character assassinated trying to feed Ben that business about loving two people at once. Just say you gave up on dating him once every ten years. Will Hannah turn out to be the Big Bad in the present? This seems possible as this episode did not paint her in the best light.

Damned if upstate New York suddenly looks a lot like Hazzard County and how convienent that they jumped off the bus a stones throw from the brohter's house?

Edited February 8 by North of Eden

[KaveDweller]

23 hours ago, pezgirl7 said:

I just read a review that said he’s 7, so I think you’re right. Even so, she still waited less time before moving on than Addison did! But I still prefer her as a love interest over Addison. 

Also, she got pregnant in the 60’s. Not as scandalous as the 50’s, but if she had aspirations of becoming a professor, I could see feeling pressured to get married. 

It was less time than Addison, but Ben and Addison were engaged. Hannah had a couple intense encounters with Ben, but also knew it could be years until she saw him again. She doesn't even know that she will. I wouldn't expect her to wait forever.

[Linderhill]

3 hours ago, North of Eden said:

Damned if upstate New York suddenly looks a lot like Hazzard County and how convienent that they jumped off the bus a stones throw from the brohter's house?

Exactly my thoughts.  It reminded me intensely of the silly episodes of NCIS when they try to make California look like the DC area.  I work in DC and grew up in NJ and there was no way that California landscape was New York state or New Jersey.  

[DoctorAtomic]

Or when in Miami, on Dexter, there were mountains in the background. 

[Commando Cody]

I don't know what the dates are. This show is bad about telling us about what time Ben is in. 

When I saw the bad guy walk in at the end - the one with the stupid name - I thought it was Hannah's son all grown up. However, I don't know how old the kid would be now. Only idiots would give themselves a name that stupid. It could be made up. Hannah did comment on how smart the kid is and they built that contraption together. 

I agree though, it is strange that with all the information in world at their literal fingertips, no one has bothered to see what Hannah is doing now. 

[lavenderblue]

I spent the entire second half of the episode waiting for Ben to at least wonder momentarily if Hannah's son was his, because as a viewer I also spent that time thinking "Why would they give her a kid in that age range [dialogue said he was seven, but he seemed older to me] and just....ignore the previous meeting completely?" Like if the kid isn't Ben's, why not instead give her a much younger child, instead of creating this weird question mark that's not even addressed in-universe? Just struck me as odd writing. 

[DoctorAtomic]

I don't think Ben and Hannah ever had sex, so why would he wonder if the child was his? People were coming to kill him and the object of his leap at the same time. There's a lot going on. 

[Trini]

2 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I don't think Ben and Hannah ever had sex, so why would he wonder if the child was his?

Besides this, the kid wouldn't be Ben's in any case.

[KaveDweller]

9 hours ago, Commando Cody said:

When I saw the bad guy walk in at the end - the one with the stupid name - I thought it was Hannah's son all grown up. However, I don't know how old the kid would be now. Only idiots would give themselves a name that stupid. It could be made up. Hannah did comment on how smart the kid is and they built that contraption together. 

Hannah's son was said to be 7 in 1970, so he'd be 60-somthing now, depending on what year it actually is in Quantum Leap land.

They didn't show Ben and Hannah have sex, but there was a scene in the Egypt episode where they are hanging out in a hotel room and she is wearing a robe and he is in an undershirt, so they could have been trying to imply it. Or maybe not.

3 hours ago, Trini said:

Besides this, the kid wouldn't be Ben's in any case.

Unless the retcon what they said last season about Ben inhabiting people's bodies because they want to match what the original show did.

[possibilities]

I for sure thought being mostly undressed in a hotel room together was broadcast family friendly tv shorthand for definitely had sex.

[pezgirl7]

On 2/7/2024 at 9:36 PM, KaveDweller said:

It was less time than Addison, but Ben and Addison were engaged. Hannah had a couple intense encounters with Ben, but also knew it could be years until she saw him again. She doesn't even know that she will. I wouldn't expect her to wait forever.

True. I don’t really begrudge her for not waiting longer, I guess I’m more annoyed at that show because they made it seem like they had some cosmic connection. Star-crossed lovers who were destined to be together eventually. 

[DoctorAtomic]

If tptb come out and say they had sex, fine. I just didn't get that impression when I watched. 

[Commando Cody]

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

If tptb come out and say they had sex, fine. I just didn't get that impression when I watched. 

I didn't either. 

[Trini]

On 2/8/2024 at 11:14 PM, possibilities said:

I for sure thought being mostly undressed in a hotel room together was broadcast family friendly tv shorthand for definitely had sex.

Even for a "family friendly" show, they could have done more to get that point across, if that is what they wanted the audience to know, but they didn't. (I'd say they were more dressed than undressed, but clearly mileage varies.)

But it's not even just the clothing situation; the scene before doesn't really set up a sex scene either.

Edited February 12 by Trini
dropped word, gah!

[pezgirl7]

The episode was on onDemand so I rewatched the part where I thought they had sex to make sure I was remembering it correctly. I’m even more convinced that they slept together. Ben knocks on Hannah’s door because he’s upset. Hannah is wearing a silk robe with a slip or nighty underneath. They hug, then there’s a fade to black with a long pause. Cut to a shot of the exterior of the hotel in the day. I remember learning in one of my media classes that filmmakers would use that trick (simply showing an exterior shot of the house etc in the morning) to imply sex in the 50s because they weren’t allowed to show it between unmarried people. Ben and Hannah are having breakfast in her hotel room. The bed looks slept in. Now she’s wearing a white robe and you can’t see if anything is underneath. Ben has a tank top (undershirt) on. When he leaves, he grabs his shirt and jacket from the night before. In the next scene, he’s wearing different clothes. When Addison appears, her eyes are shut and she slowly opens them, relieved/surprised that Ben and Hannah are not in an intimate state. 
 

I do think they could have made it more obvious while keeping it PG, but maybe they didn’t care about it being obvious. Since she never got pregnant from the encounter, I don’t think it really matters to the storyline. Which begs the question, why did I spend the time to rewatch and type up this post? 😆

Edited February 11 by pezgirl7

[DoctorAtomic]

Why would Addison need to close her eyes if HQ can see everything on the monitor? 

[possibilities]

Just because they CAN see it, doesn't mean she WANTS to see it.

[Daltrey]

On 2/7/2024 at 7:17 AM, lh25 said:

I loved the comments about the BB gun and shooting an eye out.  It would have been funny if they could have gotten Peter Billingsley to play Josh.

It may have been amusing but it made zero sense. This took place in 1970, A Christmas Story didn't come out until 1983. Ben is the only one who could have logically made that reference and given his propensity for not being discrete, I'm a little surprised they didn't have him say it. Either way, it's bad writing and took me right out of the show.

As for Hannah, Ben, Egypt and did they or didn't they, I just watched these two back to back and my impression is no. Hannah made a move to indicate she wanted to but Ben shut her down, saying something to the effect of he didn't think it was a good idea. If I missed something more subtle and I'm proven wrong, so be it but I don't think they did.